The TrustAfrica, a pan African NGO has underscored the need to educate farmers and traditional authorities in the Cocoa and Palm Oil sector of Ghana on the land tenure system.

This comes on the back of a sensitization and awareness creation on the new land act 2020, act 1036 as part of the ‘RECLAIM Sustainability!’ programme.

The ‘RECLAIM Sustainability!’ programme is being implemented by consortium two consortium members in West Africa i.e. TrustAfrica and Solidaridad West Africa.

The five-year programme is being implemented in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone with funding support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Speaking at a stakeholders dialogue, the Coordinator for West Africa-TrustAfrica, Rachel Gyabaah, was optimistic issues raised at the meeting will be addressed.

“From the challenges that have been raised, most of them are capacity and knowledge gap. We are going to close this one and engage in more sensitization among the traditional authorities and farmers. The bottom line is that we need to have proper recommendations and then at all levels we will follow through and make sure that this doesn’t become just a talk show, but that there are some actions taken,” she said.

Some other challenges highlighted in the findings are the Inability of farmers and traditional leaders to differentiate between the different types of customary lands in Ghana and the type of customary land governance system operating in their area of operation, and the Limited understanding of the processes in land acquisition, especially, on the authorities that can grant.

In the area of Limited knowledge of National Policy, Legislature and Applicable Provision, it was revealed that, Some farmers have not been compensated for crops they lost to the conversion of farmlands to residential plots to accommodate the expansion of settlements, while Other farmers have lost their farmlands and crops to illegal mining operations (galamsey) without knowing the avenues for seeking protection and/or redress.

Executive director of COLANDEF, Nana Ama Yirrah who agreed with the need for more sensitization, said it will go a long way to improve the sustainable supply chains in the cocoa and oil palm sectors in Ghana.

“We have realised that lack of education and understanding of what the land tenure system is has created a lot of challenges we find in the system, and this is true for port farmers and traditional leaders. Farmers don’t understand there are different types of land rights. It’s important that the chiefs and the farmers understand, and when we do that it will help,” she added.